Retro TV Match of the Day Des Lynam T-Shirt

In August, 1988, the BBC lost the rights to broadcast League football to ITV, leaving the corporation to cover the FA Cup and England internationals. A new show, Match of the Day: The Road to Wembley was launched, focusing on the sport's premier Cup competition, with Des Lynam as the presenter and Jimmy Hill as the main pundit.

As part of the coverage, both men were at Hillsborough on the fateful day in April, 1989, when the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was abandoned. On top of the Bradford fire and the Heysel disaster in the mid-1980s, it was another blow to the image of football as the national game and the sport desperately needed the 1990 World Cup to revive its perception amongst supporters throughout the country.  
  
Italia 90 provided that boost, with the official World Cup song 'World in Motion' topping the music charts and the theme tune to MOTD's coverage of the tournament, Nessun Dorma by Luciano Pavarotti, peaking at number two, together with England's performances on the pitch, fans fell in love with football again. 

MOTD resumed its usual Saturday night slot in August, 1993, with the launch of the Premier League, and Des was once again the host with his own inimitable style and humour. Before the crucial semi-final at Euro 96 between England and Germany, he quipped: “Glad you’ve tuned in. You’ve obviously heard there’s a football match on tonight." Two years later, at the 1998 World Cup, he teased the viewers ahead of the Monday afternoon game between England and Tunisia by saying: “Shouldn’t you lot be at work?”

In August, 1999, Des announced that he was quitting the BBC after thirty years  to join rivals ITV, a move which several newspapers dubbed the Snatch Of The Day, with Gary Lineker becoming the new host of MOTD, a position he held until the end of the 2024-25 season.